To the concerned ministries in the Indian government,

 

Since 2020, global e-commerce is a huge opportunity. Realising the potential of global internet trade, the Indian ministry came up with CSB-V module for courier export. However, there are major issues with the current CSB-V module plaguing the cross-border trade and confusing the sellers. 

 

Background : 

Regular export via air has been happening since decades via the commercial clearance. Commercial clearance requires 2-3 days time from the end of Indian customs, and 1500-2500 INR service charge by the courier companies. While the cost is not prohibitive at all for regular B2B trade, for B2C trade this solution was impractical for the following reasons : 

a ) Export to single customer having average order value of 30-100 USD. In such cases, 1500 INR in clearance cost is non-sensical. 

b ) Since even a small scale exporter will ship out 500-100 parcels a month, handling compliance for every individual small shipment will require tonnes of paperwork ( invoice, shipping bill, packing list, AWB etc for each shipment )

c ) Closing shipping bills : Submitting extensive list of documents ( invoice, shipping bill, packing list, AWB etc ) and paying bank 1500-2000 INR for each shipping bill is again impractical and cumbersome. 

Therefore, sellers were mostly shipping under SAMPLE mode. 

In late 2021, government introduced CSB-V, for such courier exports which exempted commercial clearance charges and extensive paperwork for shipments below 800 USD thereby making trade easier. However there are issues which still plagues e-commerce exporters : 

 

a ) MAIN ISSUE : Non clarity on whether shipping bills have to be closed with the bank: If closure of shipping bills is not required, which is the logical way, there is no problem. 

However, if closure of shipping bills is required, then this trade becomes impractical because of prohibitive costs ( 1500 INR per shipment, extensive paperwork submission to bank )

 

b ) Secondary Issue : There is no mechanism for claiming duty drawback, ROSCTL and GST refund.

 

 

The e-commerce sellers in the country appeal to the relevant ministries to address this issue at the earliest, and support in the growth of cross-border ecommerce trade. 

 

Harsh Tayal